Aeromonas Species in Meat Samples Obtained From Some Markets in Parts of Plateau State, Nigeria

Aeromonas species are emerging food borne pathogens with serious potentials for causing food borne diseases. They are estuarine bacteria and are ubiquitous in fresh water, ground water, bottled water, meats and fresh vegetables. A total of 800 meat samples, comprising of 4 different meat types; Chicken (200), beef (200), Fish (200) and chevon (goat meat) (200) were collected in the period of one year (from June 2017—June 2018) in Jos, Miango, Bukuru, Vom and Lamingo areas of Plateau state. These meat samples were analyzed for the presence of Aeromonas species using Aeromonas Dextrin agar and MacConkey agar. Overall 114 meat samples out of the 800 samples analyzed were positive for Aeromonas species with the beef having the highest percentage prevalence of 9.25% while the chevon had the lowest percentage prevalence of 5.75%. The result of this study revealed the presence of potentially pathogenic Aeromonas species in the meat samples obtained from these locations.